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Lady in a Green Jacket
August Macke · Early Modern (Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism)
- Artist
- August Macke (1887–1914)
- Date
- 1913
- Dimensions
- 44 x 43.5 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Lady in a Green Jacket shows a woman in a bright green jacket and a long dark skirt standing by a lake in a park, beside a couple strolling arm in arm. Arching trees frame the scene, and the light falls in patches of colour on the path.
A closer look
Macke painted this calm scene by Lake Thun in Switzerland, where he spent several months in 1913–14. The figures are simplified, faceless forms, but the harmony of colours, the vivid green jacket against blues, pinks and ochres, creates a feeling of serene well-being. Influenced by the luminous colour planes of Robert Delaunay, Macke combined them with his love of everyday modern life: people walking, shopping, looking at shop windows. His art expresses a joyful, peaceful vision of the world just before the catastrophe of the First World War.
History of the painting
The painting belonged to Josef Haubrich, a Cologne lawyer who kept collecting the art the Nazis condemned as “degenerate”. In 1946 he gave his collection to the city of Cologne; it was shown at the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and in 1976 moved to the new Museum Ludwig, which is devoted to modern art.